Avaya Customer Service Technologies Help Businesses Gain Strategic Advantage in Tough Economic Times

BASKING RIDGE, NJ, Aug 05 (MARKET WIRE) --
A broad range of businesses -- from transportation to government to
direct marketing -- are choosing Avaya customer service solutions to gain
a strategic advantage during challenging economic times.

Three organizations using contact center technologies from Avaya -- the
leader in the contact center market(1) -- to deliver superior customer
service include American Automobile Association (AAA) Mid-Atlantic, the
government of the City of Indianapolis and direct marketing giant
Harte-Hanks (NYSE: HHS). These organizations are taking advantage of
innovative contact center capabilities -- such as home-based agents,
reporting and analytics, and speech-automated self service -- to ensure
customer satisfaction continues to rise, even in an economic slowdown.

AAA Mid-Atlantic Rides Agent Efficiency to Customer Service Success

Even as gas prices and traveler frustrations rise, AAA Mid-Atlantic's
customer service operation remains a smooth running machine. This is due
to a 24/7 customer service solution from Avaya that AAA Mid-Atlantic
relies on to deliver fast and reliable service in any traveling season,
with an eye on cost-savings.

"We deal with all types of calls, from insurance and vacation planning to
emergencies that require an immediate response," said AAA Mid-Atlantic
CIO, Dominic Grosso. "Flat tires, dead batteries and accidents necessitate
customer service that can handle a large volume of roadside assistance
calls all year round. When drivers have a problem, it's our goal to get
them back on the road fast, and Avaya helps us do this."

More than 95 percent of AAA Mid-Atlantic member calls are answered by an
agent in less than 30 seconds, a factor that has led to AAA Mid-Atlantic's
90 percent membership renewal rate, one of the organization's highest.
This was achieved while using an Avaya contact center solution that
reduced the number of facilities, resources and costs, without
sacrificing quality of service.

"We have a huge fleet of tow trucks," adds Grosso. "So like everyone else,
gas prices are impacting us and we need to be smart about how we spend
money."

To introduce new efficiencies, Avaya helped AAA Mid-Atlantic consolidate
five contact centers down to just two. They also introduced home-based
agents who could work at home providing various functions -- such as
roadside assistance, insurance counsel and travel agent services -- using
sophisticated Avaya contact center technology.

Enabling agents to have a flexible workplace drives increased agent
productivity and retention, and drives down expenses by reducing hiring
and training costs, as well as reliance on brick and mortar facilities.
This ultimately leads to a smarter, more efficient customer service
operation.

City of Indianapolis: As Budgets Tighten, Customer Service Still Rises

The government of Indianapolis, Indiana oversees a broad range of
agencies, including the Office of Finance & Management, citizen hotlines,
Public Safety, and the Marion County Superior Courts. To meet the
administration's goal of improving citizen experiences -- even as city
budgets tighten -- Indianapolis selected an Avaya customer service
solution with a sophisticated reporting and analytics application, Avaya
IQ.

Avaya IQ is key to helping the City of Indianapolis gain a strategic
advantage during an economic slowdown. It provides a full view of what is
occurring across contact centers supporting various agencies, so the right
changes and investments can be made to optimize customer service.

"We are always looking for ways to improve customer service," said Giesla
Schepers, telecom manager, City of Indianapolis. "With Avaya IQ, we can
see which agencies are serving customers effectively, and where
improvements are needed. This helps us better allocate resources for
improving customer service."

Additionally, Avaya IQ is helping the city of Indianapolis fine-tune agent
responsiveness and productivity. "Now, we can easily track down and
rectify problematic agent behaviors," says Schepers. "Depending on what a
supervisor sees -- like an agent hanging up excessively, or putting
customers on hold for too long -- Avaya IQ can identify that behavior, and
drill down to learn the details. Avaya IQ eliminates the guesswork, and
provides the data to back it up."

The City of Indianapolis plans to introduce even higher levels of
responsiveness in the future. According to Schepers, they envision using
Avaya technology to help them provide follow-up calls to citizens, so if
someone calls to complain about a pothole, for example, the person will be
called back automatically once it is fixed.

Direct Marketing Giant Harte-Hanks Uses Self Service for Speed and Savings

Harte-Hanks, the worldwide direct marketing company, provides FORTUNE
500(R) clients with global contact center solutions encompassing key
functions such as lead generation, customer care, and technical support.
Success to Harte-Hanks means helping clients realize a substantial return
on their marketing investments.

To ensure customer service remains fast and effective in tough economic
times, Harte-Hanks uses a range of Avaya contact center solutions,
including self service, which lets customers navigate a company's phone by
themselves to get to the right information or live agent. Self service
improves both customer satisfaction and cost savings through faster, more
accurate interactions, and more efficient use of agents.

Speech self service -- which lets customers speak commands to an automated
system via phone -- enables Harte-Hanks to provide their clients with a
unique servicing capability. One of their large shipping clients uses
speech self service to help customers quickly provide information, and get
to the live agent best equipped to handle their request. This enables
customers to spend less time on the phone or talking to agents, increasing
customer satisfaction while reducing the company's cost of labor.
Ultimately, speedy self service allows agents to handle more customer
requests in the same amount of time.

"The great thing about Avaya's self service technologies is that you don't
have to break the bank to be effective," said Kris Klein in Corporate
Technology Services at Harte-Hanks. "We can be smart with technology to
help our clients keep customers happy, while keeping overall costs down."

Harte-Hanks also makes the most of the Web to raise customer satisfaction
in a cost-effective way. Since the last economic downturn, Klein states
that the Web has grown to become an excellent self-service medium that
customers are comfortable using. Instant feedback via downloaded PDFs or
FAQs means reducing costs that would otherwise be incurred by lengthy
agent conversations or postage for mailing materials. This drives bottom
line savings, while contributing to a sophisticated database of Web-based
customers that only gets more accurate the more customers use it.

"Extending self service via the Web, we helped a game console provider
build a knowledge database over 5 years," said Klein. "Our customer
service ratings with them are very high, and this is due to Avaya self
service helping deliver fast, accurate information for people that demand
instant gratification. Even in tough times, clients want to see customer
satisfaction levels trend upward -- and they hold us accountable."

(1) Gartner Market Share, Contact Centers, Worldwide 2007. Drew Kraus.
June 2008

About Avaya

Avaya delivers Intelligent Communications solutions that help companies
transform their businesses to achieve marketplace advantage. More than 1
million businesses worldwide, including more than 90 percent of the
FORTUNE 500(R), use Avaya solutions for IP Telephony, Unified
Communications, Contact Centers and Communications-Enabled Business
Processes. Avaya Global Services provides comprehensive service and
support for companies, small to large.

For more information visit the Avaya Web site: http://www.avaya.com.

Media Relations:
Jonathan Varman
908 953 6432
jvarman@avaya.com

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